Lifeline
by Menelvir GilNaur
Summary: Adrian has a bad dream and suffers a mental breakdown, but Franziska comes in to comfort her. Set right before the first trial in 2-4, so spoilers for GS2/PW2. Written for cathartic purposes.


Disclaimer: I own... just a copy of the games, unfortunately. Capcom holds the 'wrights' (haha...) to the characters, etc.

* * *

Darkness. Thick, stifling darkness.

_Where am I?_ Adrian Andrews wondered aloud. Her voice sounded dead to her ears, as if muffled by the velvet night. In panic, she threw out her hands, hoping to find something solid, something that would tell her where she was.

Instead, her hands met with… wetness.

In fact, she was completely surrounded by it.

_I can't swim! Am I going to drown…?_ Adrian drew a deep breath, and screamed, begging, praying that someone would hear here and rescue her.

It took her half a minute to realise that if she could scream, she could breathe. And if she could breathe, she wouldn't drown yet.

That still did not explain how she got to be surrounded by darkness and water. Nor how she was going to get _out_ of the darkness and water.

Adrian pushed out with her arms and legs, trying to imitate a dog's fashion of swimming. There was no way of telling if she making any progress or not, but action was better than idleness.

A pinprick of light came into her view. Relief flooded her body like a warm blanket, and she struggled all the more harder towards that ray of hope. It eventually revealed itself to be a small wooden boat, and the light stemmed from a lantern held up by a person standing in the boat, whose face was yet shadowed.

The face did not matter, however; Adrian knew that person's figure so well, that she did not need to see her face to confirm her identity. It was her mentor, and the only person who was closer to her than even family: Celeste Inpax.

Adrian gave a cry of joy, holding her arms out to the figure in the boat, salt tears running down her face.

Then the figure changed: bright blonde hair, with a red and white racing jacket. Again, Adrian could not see the face, but she could feel his mocking sneer.

_No, not you…_ _Go away! Give me back my Celeste!!_ Adrian splashed in the water desperately, eager to get away from the one man whom she hated from the bottom of her heart. But the boat drew nearer.

_No! Please! Someone, save me! Get me away from that maniac!_

The figure on the boat changed again. The ugly racing jacket disappeared and was replaced by womanly curves. The newcomer's bright blue hair was vaguely familiar, though Adrian did not know why. In any case, friend or foe, anyone had to be better than Matt Engarde.

The blue-haired woman raised her right hand, and out from it dangled a thin rope. _A lifeline!_ She was going to rescue Adrian! She drew back her arm, preparing to throw the rope…

_Crack!_

Adrian Andrews opened her eyes in a snap. She was still in darkness, but not completely engulfed in it; the first rays of dawn streamed in from her window. _So it was just a dream…_

She tried to stretch, but realised that, just as she had in the dark water, she had struggled in her sleep. Her blanket was so tightly knotted around her slim body that she could barely move.

There was another _crack_ from outside her window. Now that she heard the sound again, she realised that it was a whip. That would mean that prosecutor from yesterday, Franziska von Karma, was here to pick her up for the trial.

_Franziska…_

So that was why that blue-haired woman from her dream had been so familiar…

"Are you up yet, Ms. Andrews?" Franziska's sharp voice cut through the morning air. Adrian quickly disentangled herself from her blanket and rushed to the window. Franziska was waiting for her outside her door.

"Uhh… Give me a moment, Ms. von Karma," she called. "I…I'll let you in."

Adrian hurried down the stairs to open her front door, and left Franziska waiting in the living room while she changed out of her pyjamas. Last night's dream still weighed heavily on her mind. Celeste Inpax, the woman whom Adrian loved like a sister, and Matt Engarde, one of the pair who drove her to her grave. Since Celeste's suicide, she had waited and prayed for this day: the day when kind Fate would deliver the sword of revenge into her hands. Today, she would testify in court, and in doing so, have Matt charged as "Guilty" for the murder of the other man who had sealed Celeste's tomb.

That was the right thing to do, wasn't it?

But now that she had reached the goal she had been striving for for the past few years, she was not so sure. Ever since Celeste had left her forever, she had trouble finding her own path in life… Putting her mentor's spirit at rest was her first priority. But what next?

"Ms. Andrews?" There was a soft knock on her bedroom door. "We shall be late if we do not leave soon."

The door opened, and Franziska walked in to see a dazed Adrian Andrews sitting on her bed, still in her pyjamas. With an irritated _tut_, she moved to stand in front of her precious witness.

"Ms. Andrews. Is anything the matter?" Franziska asked, more impatient than concerned.

Without speaking, Adrian reached out a hand to grab Franziska's skirt, drawing the prosecutor closer, and buried her face in the dark cloth.

Shocked by Adrian's actions, Franziska pulled her hand back, ready to give the other woman a backhanded slap. But even as her hand moved to hit her, a memory from her distant past flashed across Franziska's mind. _Her own pitiful three-year-old self, crying in the garden of her father's white bungalow. She had fallen down and cut herself across the knee. Blood and tears splattered on her perfect, white dress, staining the satin. Then, the voice of a boy, calling her name anxiously. "Franziska! Franziska, are you alright? Come, let's get you indoors and wash that blood away."_

"_It hurts, _Bruder_, it hurts…"_

_The boy's hair tickled Franziska's skin as he bent down and kissed the bleeding gash. "There, I've kissed the pain away. Be a good girl and smile for me, alright?"_

Franziska's hand changed course in mid-air: instead of making for Adrian's cheek, it curved to her back to cradle the woman who sat crying, helpless as a baby. Franziska leaned forward to kiss Adrian's blonde hair, whispering, as that boy, her _bruderlein_, had done then, "Never fear. I'll protect you."


End file.
